Duncan Hunter on ISIL: Guys in pajamas

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) says the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is not a direct threat to the U.S. homeland.

“ISIS in Iraq and Syria is not an existential threat to us. They’re not going to harm the United States,” Hunter said Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Kelly File.” ISIL is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. “They’re bad guys, yes, but a bunch of guys wearing pajamas pushing up logs, they are not an existential threat to us like North Korea is, like Iran is, like Pakistan is.”

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Hunter’s comments came during a discussion with host Megyn Kelly on Douglas McAuthur McCain, an American who is said to have been killed in Syria while fighting for ISIL. News that dozens, perhaps hundreds, of westerners have joined ISIL is fueling fears that fighters with passports from western nations could enter the United States to commit acts of terror.

“The only threat that lies with [ISIL] is if they can get people back in the United States to do harm to us here and commit acts of terror,” Hunter said.

“You’re always going to have disaffected youth, you’re always going to have that pull to join something greater than yourself,” he added. “People like me join the United States Marine Corps, people like McCain join ISIS.”

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Hunter joined the Marines and became the first Marine veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to serve in Congress.

In order to quell this threat, Hunter also suggested securing the southern border of the U.S. and denying visas “in totality” to people from the Middle East for the time being.